Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo – Sadiki Patrick, 40, is still grappling with the loss of his 15-year-old daughter, Judith, in Mongbwalu, a mining town in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.Judith is one of the latest victims of Ebola as the country battles yet another outbreak, the seventeenth in just 50 years.“It is heartbreaking to lose my third child in the prime of her youth,” Patrick, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, told Al Jazeera.“I sent her to school so that she could be educated and become a valuable member of society. Now, she is a thing of the past,” he said, his voice heavy with sorrow.He described the situation in Mongbwalu as dire, accusing authorities of failing to act quickly enough to contain the outbreak before it had spread.According to Congolese authorities, Mongbwalu is where the first cases of the new Ebola outbreak were reported. Residents describe daily deaths in the village, while local health services struggle to respond.The recurring epidemics in the DRC highlight how fragile healthcare systems, poverty, and ongoing conflict leave communities especially vulnerable to deadly diseases.Why Ebola keeps returningFrancine Mbona Pendeza, a Congolese doctor who helped fight Ebola in the North Kivu province between 2018 and 2020, said that unsafe food practices, limited access to clean water, and weaknesses in the healthcare system are a major factor in the repeated epid …
